Finally, Jaden Lee David has made his entrance into the world!
Born December 15, 2014 at 5:27pm
Weighing 8lbs 14oz and 21 inches long!
We went in on December 14th to get induced, fully expecting a 12/14/14 baby, but who was I kidding, this baby has shown from the beginning that he will come when he is good and ready!
The waiting game:
November 9th, my sister Jacee came in from Texas to help organize Jaden's room and get us set up with a full on hospital emergancy kit, full of snacks and starbucks gift cards and all the fun things we might need to survive a few nights in the hospital. We went to the baby doctor to see how Jaden was progressing. Doctor told us "the head his in position, you are 1cm dialated and 40% effaced, that baby could come at anytime." I was excited because at 37 weeks, I was getting a little uncomfortable, so I didn't mind if he showed up a few weeks early. I started preparing everything at work, so if he came, I would be prepared to pass on my client list. I was ready, but dear ole' Jaden Lee had other plans.
November 25th, I was nearing my due date, and still no baby in sight! I went to the doctor, and guess what...1cm and 50% effaced! In 3 weeks, I had advanced 10%, no matter, we weren't at the due date and I still had a few things I wanted to wrap up at work. The guys at work began a betting pool on Jaden's due date and weight, most of them were November 29th - December 3rd, with one guy betting on December 10th. I laughed at the December 10th guy....No way, buddy, you are way off, I thought.
Thanksgiving came and went, November 30th showed up, and I started having contractions...THIS IS IT, I thought, come on baby!! The contractions never progressed, but I thought, this baby is coming soon! December 2nd, we went to the baby doctor, 1cm dialated and 50% effaced?? SAY WHAT?? After all those contractions and a month later we are still in the same centimeter, my doctor was nice and said, it could have been 1.5cm. Then the circus began, I googled every theory out there that is suppose to induce labor naturally. Many of the things I read, I would think to myself, this is ridiculous, no way does hoping around on one leg induce labor, but low and behold, minutes later I could be seen hoping around on one leg.
December 10th came and went and that guy who bet Dec 10th, was the one laughing now. The comments that use to be funny like "when's that baby coming" and "you are still pregnant" and "what are you still doing here" and "I guess he will come when he is ready" started getting old. I went to the doctor with the news of 1cm and 50% effaced, I started questioning her measuring ability and wondering if she has the right ruler. She told me that she would be scheduling the induction for December 14th, and I thought, I have 4 days, surely he will come before December 14th. I should have learned from all that waiting that "he will come when he is ready."
DECEMBER 14th, INDUCTION DAY
My parents were on their way and Kyle and I enjoyed the morning with coffee and a drive through Red Rock. I was excited because 12/14/14 was a perfect birthday date! Wrong again, Dondi, "That baby will come when he is ready." We checked into our room, got settled and they started Cervidil at 4:00pm which is suppose to ripen the cervix before pitosin. I was ready, let's do this!! I started having contractions every 7 minutes around 8pm, and was ready for the journey. At 4am, they came and checked me...guess what...there was that freakin' 1cm and 50% effaced words again. All that pain and sleepless night and I was still at the same spot I began. You have got to be kidding me, I thought!! They decided to do another round of cervidil instead of inducing with Pitosin, because they weren't sure I would be able to deliver vaginally if I went straight to pitosin. At 7am, Kyle and I have a friend that we go to church with who works in Labor and Delivery at Summerlin Hospital and she came in for her shift! It was awesome to have someone I knew be my nurse. We are now closer than ever because we no longer have any secrets in our friendship.
So here we go, another round of cervidil and not even a .5cm advanced. Our nurse friend Mary, started dancing around our room as a joke doing the "cervix dance." Funny enough, we can now add a new "natural induction" method to the list, have someone do a "cervix dance!" Around 7am, I started having contractions every 3 minutes apart. Before this journey began, I thought, it would be cool if I could have a baby naturally without any medication...well that funny little thought quickly faded as the labor pains intensified. Labor isn't a joke and any women who can do it without medication is my hero. At 11am after being in labor for 19 hours, I was checked and finally advanced to 3cm dialated and 60% effaced. FINALLY something besides a 1! Anything is better than a freakin' 1!! I still had 7 more cm to go and contractions were about every 2 minutes, so I threw in the towel, Met my new best friend, the anesthesiologist, who gave me God's 2nd greatest gift of grace, the epidural! I sat watching the monitor after that as the contraction would come and go and laughing because I couldn't feel a thing! I went from 3cm at 12pm to fully effaced and 10cm at 5pm! YES FINALLY!!! My doctor was in the middle of a c-section and told Nurse Mary to have to push a few times to get the baby in place. I pushed once and Mary told me I needed to stop because one more push and she would be delivering my baby. When Jaden finally decided to come, he came! The doctor arrived and few pushes later, the greatest moment of my whole life finally happened!
He's Here!
Kyle was on my right holding my leg and nurse Mary was on my left, and as I pushed, I looked over at Kyle and he was crying, he had seen Jaden's face for the first time. They brought him up to my chest and I finally got to look at my son for the first time. He is beautiful and perfect! Here is the back story on all that, I have never been a "baby" person. When there is a baby being passed around to hold, I'm usually the first to say, that's a cute kid, but I'll just look from a distance. Everyone always said "it's different when it's your own." I was skeptic until that moment at 5:27pm when Kyle and I's whole world changed. I know it sounds cheesy and cliche, but I fell more in love with Kyle then I have ever been and fell in love instantly with this tiny human that had no idea who just turned on the light and stole his blanket. His cry was perfect, his face was perfect and even his cone head from traveling down the birth canal was perfect! In an instant our whole life has changed. Turns out we have a miracle baby, Jaden was born with a true knot in his umbilical cord which apparently only happens in 1% of pregnancies and many of those do not survive. I believe that he came at the right time in the right circumstance with the right people helping him arrive. God knew the perfect time for Jaden's birth and we are so thankful!
4 days later, here I am reflecting on that moment crying with joy. Side note: this whole crying stuff has to stop, my mom has been here helping kyle and I get on our feet by cooking, cleaning, running errands, taking the night shift so we can sleep, and even turning all the pink onesies I created from a bad washing experience back into white onesies. I cry everytime I think about her leaving tomorrow. I spent about 30 minutes yesterday crying because my mom cleaned our bathrooms spotless. I know alot of it has to do with the perfect combination of hormone crash and lack of sleep, but one thing that I know is that my mom is just taking care of me like she has since the first day I was born. That's what mom's do.
How are things going?? So far, we are only 4 days in and things have been great. Jaden is just as laid back in person as he was in the womb. He picked up breast feeding really quickly and sleeps, eats and poops without putting up too much of a fuse. With my mom here, Kyle and I have been able to sleep more than a normal person with a 4 day old baby. Kyle is the best dad ever and I have enjoyed watching him love our son the way that he does, he has had the week off from work which has been awesome for us to figure out this whole parenting thing. We have learned the struggle of putting on a onesie, giving him a bath and covering his little penis so he doesn't pee on himself. I know that just because things are good now they may not always be so easy, check in with me on Monday when my mom has traveled back to Texas and Kyle has to go back to work. For now, I'm confident that when things do get hard, we have an amazing support group around us that have shown us so much love.
I'll post pictures as soon as I can figure out an easy way to transfer them from my phone to my computer. For now, I just wanted to write my perspective on the whole thing so I can look back in few years on that moment when life changed forever.
